I've mentioned that on the busses there are often people that come on selling various products. Some just come on and yell what they have..."Pan de guineo!!!" (banana bread) or "Helados helados helados!!" (ice cream ice cream ice cream) or "Fresas uvas fresas uvas!!" (strawberries grapes strawberries grapes). Other times we get the nice, long sales pitch. Our bus trip had tons of people selling all the above (we enjoyed a couple slices of banana bread and I was tempted by some of the other sweet treats) and most special of all- manteca de culebra (snake lard!). The price says $2.50 but he was selling it for the special bus price of $1! Cures coughs, colds and muscle aches!
I love looking out the window when riding the bus on the coast. Although the views in the sierra are gorgeous (rivers, gorgeous green mountains, cows on the hills, windy roads), we get a different view on the coast- passing homes made of caña, people selling coconuts and coconut juice on the highway, and hammocks hanging).
When we arrived in Puerto Lopez, we weren't expecting muddy roads, cloudy sky and chilly weather!
But that is what we got! For some reason we were envisioning hot and sunny weather...clearly we didn't read the guide books or talk to the other volunteers who live on the coast to find out what weather is like in August!
We stayed at the Hosteleria Mandala and got the Pulpo (Octopus) Cabaña. Janet and Jason stayed next door in the Seahorse Cabaña! Fun!
All around Puerto Lopez (and a good chunk of the coast) there are motorcycle taxis. One of our mototaxi drivers had so much gel in his hair, it didn't move at all when we were driving on the highway...impressive!
This was right outside our hotel. The sign says we were 5565.17 km (3458 miles) away from Los Angeles...that's a long ways away! (From LA to Loja, it is 3653 miles)
Our meals in the coast consisted of a lot of seafood, since we don't get it that often in the mountains. Here's Janet with her yummy grilled corvina!
We also got to see some of the fisherman bringing in their catch. The frigates were flying all over waiting for the opportunity to steal a meal from the open crates.
On our walk along the beach, we found a ton of sand dollars. There weren't starfish like when we visited Stefanie a year ago in her site in Palmar.
Jason getting his morning coffee and Adam hanging tight in the hammock
Funny story- this guy is sanding his boat and Jason suddenly said, "What your step." We realized that he was getting his electricity by connecting his wire (which was running across the road) to the power lines using hooks (maybe coat hangers?)
Watermelons, pineapples, and unknown type of melons!
Fresh catch of the day!
How they sell bananas on the coast
Always with the camera
Our main goal heading out to the coast was the see whales. And whales we saw!
Two whales cruising between the boats
Yes, that is a whale with his head up and his fin waving to us!
Jason and Janet NOT throwing up (because Adam threw up 3 times on the boat)
Everyone whipping their cameras out. And simultaneously Adam was throwing up on the other side of the boat, poor thing!
Adam finally feeling well enough to get a piña-coco batido (milkshake)
We also were able to get a birthday cake for Adam. Janet wanted to put 28 candles on but the pack only came with 16 or so.
Adam looking pretty proud for blowing all of his candles out in one shot
Before we left we also visited Parque Nacional Machalilla
Nice hike but poor Jota hurt his foot doing something so he was a little limpy.
So pretty much our trip was amazing and we had a great time seeing whales, celebrating Adam's birthday and walking on the beach!
1 comment:
Hi Emily! Greetings from Chennai, India. You still keep up with the scrapbooking. Hope you're doing well and looking forward to seeing you again when we're both back in CA.
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